Wednesday, January 28, 2015

We’re thrilled to
be talking to Sir Benedict Palmer from E.M. Powell’s, The Blood of the Fifth Knight. It is a pleasure to have him
with us today at Pimp That Character!

Thank you for your
interview, Sir Benedict.Can you tell us
your story?

I’m not usually
called Sir Benedict. Palmer is just fine. See, I’m not one of those posh-lad
knights. I had to fight my way to knighthood, never had lands or wealth of my
own. And when you fight in twelfth century England, you have to kill or be killed.

So, my story. It’s
1176 and King Henry II has imprisoned his rebellious Queen for attempting to
overthrow him. But her conspirators are still at large and somebody’s trying to
murder his young mistress, Rosamund Clifford. Desperate, Henry turns to the
only man he trusts: me! My fighting prowess has saved him once before. I answer
his call, mistakenly believing that my family will remain safe while he attends
to his King.

But what neither I
nor Henry sense is the hand of a brilliant schemer, a mystery figure loyal to
the traitorous Queen who will stop at nothing to see the King defeated.

Shorter version?
Things are bad. Then they get a whole lot worse.

Can you tell us
about one of your most distinguishable features?

My parents were
poor and never had much to feed me. But it didn’t stop me growing taller and
broader than most men. I’ve got my mother’s thick, dark hair, too. Have to cut
it once a week with my knife.

What would I love
the most about you?

I’m loyal. But how
could anybody be anything else?

What would I hate
the most about you?

I have a temper
when roused. Not often. But it’s there.

What is your
greatest fear?

Losing my wife,
Theodosia, or our two young children.

Do you think the
author portrayed you accurately?

Readers say there’s
in love with me. Ms. Powell needs to sort that out. The other knights think
that this is hilarious.

Who is your best
friend?

My Theodosia. She’s
one of Henry’s daughters, hidden away by him for her safety. In the first of my
adventures, The Fifth Knight, I
fought almost to the death for her. Still would, and would take that death if I
had to.

Do you have
children?

We have a son, Tom,
and a daughter Matilde. I’d take the head off the shoulders of anyone who tried
to harm them. Trouble is, in this book, that pesky author has taken me away
from them. Away where I can’t protect them.

What’s your idea of
a perfect meal?

Any meal that I
share with my family.

Someone is secretly
in love with you.Who is it and how do
you feel about that?

This is a very big
problem. It’s Rosamund Clifford, Henry’s mistress. The same woman he’s called
me back to keep guard over. And he wants me to find out who’s trying to kill
her. She’s one of the fairest I’ve ever seen and she likes her men. And me. I
don’t want anything to do with her, but she’s very persistent. I’m in a lot of
trouble if Henry finds out. Which he does.

About the Author:

E. M. Powell is
the author of medieval thriller The Fifth Knight, which was a #1 Amazon
Bestseller. Born and raised in the Republic of Ireland into the family
of Michael Collins (the legendary revolutionary and founder of the Irish Free State), she now lives
in the northwest of England with her husband
and daughter and a Facebook-friendly dog. She is a member of the Historical
Novel Society (HNS), International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of
America, as well as a reviewer of fiction and nonfiction for the HNS.

England, 1176. King
Henry II has imprisoned his rebellious Queen for her failed attempt to
overthrow him. But with her conspirators still at large and a failed
assassination attempt on his beautiful mistress, Rosamund Clifford, the King
must take action to preserve his reign.

Desperate, Henry turns to the only man he trusts: a man whose skills
have saved him once before. Sir Benedict Palmer answers the call, mistakenly
believing that his family will remain safe while he attends to his King.

As Palmer races to secure his King’s throne, neither man senses the hand
of a brilliant schemer, a mystery figure loyal to Henry's traitorous Queen who
will stop at nothing to see the King defeated.

The
Blood of the Fifth Knight is an intricate medieval murder mystery and worthy
sequel to E.M. Powell's acclaimed historical thriller The Fifth Knight.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

We’re thrilled to
be talking to Amelia Slater from Greg Messel’s Shadows In the Fog.
It is a pleasure to have her with us today at Pimp That Character!

Thank you for your
interview Amelia. Can you tell us your story?

My name is Amelia
Ryan Slater. I’m 26 years old have been a stewardess for TWA. I recently
resigned when the airline found out I was married to Sam. I am now my husband’s
partner in his private investigation business.

This is how most
people identify me but there’s much, much more to me.

First of all, I’ve
always dreamed of adventure--particularly flying. Maybe it’s because I was born
in 1932.

In the year of my
birth the biggest celebrity in America was Amelia Earhart. She was not only
an adventurer but she was a woman. That made her all the more extraordinary at
the moment when I came into the world.

It was my mother’s
admiration of the great aviator that prompted her to name me Amelia.

It seemed
to set a course for my own destiny.

I’m the youngest
child in a big Irish Catholic family who are native San Franciscans. My
family and my religion have always been important to me. My brothers each
married good Catholic girls and my older sister, Lizzie, married a Catholic
man. All of my brothers and sister and their spouses began having children,
much to the delight of my parents, particularly my mother.

As high school
ended in 1950, there was a sweet boy named Phillip who had steadily dated me
and was deeply in love with me. I loved him too but I wasn’t ready to settle
down and get married.

There was a big
world out there that I wanted to see. I wanted to fly, just like my namesake.
The only option open to a young woman was becoming a stewardess. I
hungrily read the brochures about becoming a stewardess. I could not only fly
but I could see the world. I could experience the glamor and meet the rich and
famous. I could see things that other people only see pictures of in books or
on postcards.

My father was very
supportive but my mother, who really liked Phillip, wanted me to get married
and settle down. At one point in my life, before I met Phillip, my mother
wanted me to become a nun. But I made my own decision to apply with TWA to become
a stewardess.

I spent weeks at
the TWA facility in Kansas
City
training. Not all of the girls would make it. We went through hours of training
about how to be charming and how to care for passengers. The brochure
said that girls needed to be pretty--”just under Hollywood standards.” I worried that they
wouldn’t find me to be pretty enough.

Can you tell us
about one of your most distinguishable features?

I don’t know—I
guess it’s my blonde hair. It seems to attract a lot of attention. Men on the planes
and in New
York City
and certainly in Europe seemed enamored with a young blonde
stewardess. Fortunately so did Sam Slater.

What makes you
laugh out loud?

Sam’s pal Vince
Marino. Vince is a tough guy San Francisco cop. He’s also one of my best friends. I
love to needle him and tease him. It makes me laugh out when I get to
him.

What is your
greatest fear?

That something would happen to Sam. Our jobs as private eyes can
be really dangerous. We both faced great danger in the events covered in the book
“Shadows In The Fog.” I almost lost Sam in the shooting and Sam almost lost me
when I was kidnapped.

What is the trait
you most not like about yourself?

I’m sure Sam would
tell you that I can be really stubborn. He’s right.

Do you think the
author portrayed you accurately?

For the most part.
I’m shocked sometimes when I see myself portrayed as being obsessed with
sex. I guess around Sam I am that way, but only him. Also I didn’t know that
creepy guy was hiding in my closet watching me undress until I read “Shadows In
The Fog.”

Do you have
children?

No, but I love
children and look forward to the day when Sam and I are parents.

What is your
favorite weather?

I like it cool and overcast. I guess I’m just a San Francisco girl at heart. If the temperature gets over
75 I begin running for the shade. I love San Francisco’s cool, mild weather.

When you were a
child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

My mother likes to
tell the story about me when I was just a little girl. I think was about six or
seven when this happened. I was outside playing and I saw an airplane
flying overhead. I was transfixed. It was something magical to me to fly
through the sky.

I went into the
house and asked “Mommy, what’s it like up in the sky?”

I had to find out
for myself. That’s why I became a stewardess with TWA.

What is your most
treasured possession?

The happiest day of
my life is when I received the letter telling me that I had been chosen to
become a TWA stewardess. It was everything I hoped it would be. It was the
greatest experience of my life until the end of the summer of 1957 when the man
of my dreams--Sam Slater--walked into my life.

About the Author:

Greg
Messel has spent most of his adult life interested in writing, including a
career in the newspaper business. He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a
columnist and has contributed articles to various magazines. Greg retired from
the corporate world and now lives in South Jordan, Utah with his wife of over 40
years, Carol Madsen Messel. They have three adult children who are married and
have 11 grandchildren.

Greg
has written eight novels. His latest is "Shadows
In The Fog" which is the fifth in a series of mysteries set in 1959 San Francisco. "FogCity Strangler," "San
Francisco Secrets," "Deadly Plunge" are sequels to the first
book in the series "Last of the Seals." His other three novels are
"Sunbreaks," "Expiation" and "The Illusion of
Certainty."

Greg
is currently working on his ninth novel--the sixth in the mystery series--"Cable
Car Mystery"--which will be published in late 2015.

The story begins on a stormy morning in February of 1959. The front page
of the morning paper is dominated by news of the plane crash which killed rock
’n roll stars Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens.

Private Eye Sam Slater is hired to perform what he thinks is a routine
two-day job as a favor for a friend. However, it all goes terribly wrong when a
young San Francisco policeman is
gunned down while sitting in a parked car with Sam.

The murder sets off a chain of events which will pull Sam and his wife
and partner, Amelia, into a dangerous web of intrigue in the dark, shadowy
alleys and back rooms of San Francisco’s Chinatown.

In the winter of 1959, Amelia resigns as a TWA stewardess and is now
Sam’s full time partner in the private eye business.

Sam and Amelia inadvertently come in conflict with the San Francisco mob boss after
helping a crusading newspaper reporter who is working to expose corruption in Chinatown. Now a mysterious
dark car follows the Slaters every where they go. Sam and Amelia discover a
hidden world of corrupt cops, gambling parlors, brothels and human trafficking
exists right under their noses.

At the same time, a rising California politician hires
Sam and Amelia to find his daughter who disappeared without a trace three years
earlier. The search is prompted by the sudden appearance of a letter from the
woman, who was presumed dead.

As Sam and Amelia pursue these cases, they discover that all the clues
lead them back to Chinatown. The Slaters
want to avoid taking on the San Francisco crime lords
head-on. However, when Amelia is kidnapped in an alley during the Chinese New
Year’s celebration, Sam plunges himself into danger desperately searching Chinatown to find her
before it’s too late.

The reader will be drawn into fast moving events which culminate in a
harrowing conclusion as Sam Slater races against the clock on a foggy night in Chinatown.

“Shadows In The Fog” is the fifth book in the the award winning Sam
Slater Mysteries Series but is a stand-alone thriller in the tradition of great
whodunits.

We’re thrilled to be talking to Ria Ofor from D. U. Okonkwo’s, Rise. It is a pleasure to have her with us today at Pimp That Character!

Thank you for your interview, Ria. Can you tell us your story?

Ria:
Thank you for having me. My story is how I came to learn the importance of pursuing the truth. Ever since being in a fire when I was a child that left me facially-scarred, I had believed a lot of thing about myself that weren’t true. These things stopped me from being who I really was. They made me insecure, fearful, and caused me to suffer from low self-esteem. Even though I have found much joy in my sculpting which I love to do, my fears and insecurities prevented me from sharing my work with a large audience. I’m happy to say that I have since discovered the true source of self-esteem.

What makes you laugh out loud?

Ria: A good joke or a sarcastic comment from my friend, Danika.

What is in your refrigerator right now?

Ria: Ingredients for my daily green power juice, salad, and fish.

Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?

Ria: I think she did her best. I’m a very complex person!

What is your idea of a perfect day?

Ria: A good day sculpting a new piece, then going to have lunch with my friends, then dinner with my boyfriend.

What are three must haves when shopping at the grocery store?

Ria: Ingredients for breakfast, bottled water, and items that make up a complete meal. I don’t like bits and bobs shopping.

The extraordinary story of how a facially-scarred and reclusive sculptress breaks free upon discovering the true source of self-esteem.

Riana “Ria” Ofor is a gifted sculptress whose beautiful creations could draw crowds. But due to the childhood accident that left her facially-scarred, she avoids selling her work publicly, instead scraping a living through online sales. But when a home repossession notice arrives, both her love for sculpting, a well as her home, suddenly come under threat.

Now she is forced to step out of her comfort zone and enter the very public world of gallery showings. When she does land a gallery contract however, she finds herself the target of a rival artist after the very same contract. And with malicious lies, he intends make her regret taking what should have been his. Now, for the first time, Ria must look to find a truth that conquers all lies.

About The Author:

Born and raised in London, D. U. Okonkwo writes commercial literary fiction. She graduated from the University of Salford with a BSc in Business with Spanish which included an ERASMUS exchange living in Salamanca, Spain. RISE is her first novel.